Then he shouldered off the wall and looked down at me. He and Flynn may have only been half-brothers, but there was more of Flynn in that look than Edward. I felt like Cody's eyes could see straight through me.
“The act also helped me avoid the result I didn’t want. You’re scared to death, Gabs. If she’s focusing on me, then she’s less likely to focus on you. People who know me already know I’m gay and if they're focusing on me, then maybe you’ll slide under their radar.”
“I…” I swallowed, shame twisting inside me at the thought of him having to pretend on my account. “I don’t want you having to wear a mask for me. I can take care of myself.”
Cody’s face softened and he reached up, pushing his walnut-brown hair back from his face. “I know you can. But everybody wears masks, Gabs. It’s not like I’m not doing anything I don’t do half my life.”
I started to contradict him, but he arched an eyebrow and the words died in my throat.
He turned to the dresses the attendants had rounded up for us. He selected a couple, seemingly at random. “You wear a mask too, you know,” he spoke while his back was to me. “You speak your mind around me, around Flynn…but around Edward, you hesitate. I bet you wouldn’t have up and fired off what you said to me the first day we met. And I know you wouldn't have flipped him off like Flynn says you did to him.”
He turned and handed me a dress of pale, soft blue.
He was right. I wasn't as open with Edward as I was with his brothers. Cody made me feel comfortable. Flynn...well he just pissed me off and I lost what little filter I had. I didn't say anything about that though. I couldn't admit it, not even to him. So I said the only thing I could think of.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” He kissed my forehead and gave me a small, but genuine smile. “People don’t wear masks because they like them. They wear them because they think they need them.”
***
The party was held at the Bouvier family estate, nearly forty-five minutes outside the city. I was wrapping my head around the fact that Edward had grown up here when he gave me a kiss on the cheek and then left me with Cody and his parents while he went to mingle.
Albert McCreary, at least, was nominally polite, but Claire Bouvier couldn’t have made her displeasure any more plain.
After Edward was gone, she gave me a narrow look and said thinly, “At least you learned to dress for the occasion.”
Cody responded before I could. “I tried to talk her into wearing latex and leather. If she had fun, I could, too, but Gabriella wouldn’t budge. She insisted on being conservative…the brat.” He winked at me.
Claire’s mouth tightened in disapproval before the scowl faded and she sighed, shaking her head at Cody. “How is…” she paused briefly and then smiled. “Jordan?”
“Lousy, I hope.” Cody shrugged. “We broke up. He wanted family money. I told him to get lost.”
“I’m sorry.” Claire's sympathy at least sounded genuine, but then she turned towards me and narrowed those icy eyes. “My boys always figure it out in the end when they're being used.”
“I’m not using Edward.” I didn't raise my voice, but I did make sure the words were firm.
Her nostrils flared and I could see the words forming, but before she had a chance to give them voice, Cody caught my hand in his. “Right. So, Mom, I promised Edward I’d introduce Gabriella to people while he's off talking business. Come on, Gabs!” Cody put his glass down on the tray of a passing waiter and then caught mine, and did the same. “Let’s go mingle.”
Without wasting another second, he had us lost in the crowd and I gave him a grateful look. “Thank you.”
He squeezed my hand and then let it go. “No problem.” He put a sedate distance between us and then nodded at the crowd. “Some of Mom and Dad’s friends still don’t know about me. I’m not exactly in the closet, but it's not like we had a big coming out party or I invite any of my boyfriends to family gatherings. Until I do, we can’t risk having anybody thinking I’m hitting on my brother’s girl.”
Immediately, Flynn’s voice came rose from the back of my memory.
I’m not into poaching
.
I didn’t have time to dwell on it. I was acutely aware of the fact that I was catching a lot of looks and not many people made an attempt to hide their curiosity. We were halfway across the elegant pavilion when a tall, curvy blonde with near-black eyes came up to Cody and gave him one of those air kisses.
“Stacia. You look lovely.”
“Cody.” She stepped back and then smiled at me. Her hair was that sort of blonde that was almost white. “You must Gabrielle.”
“Gabriella,” I corrected with a smile.
“Of course.”
Something told me she knew the right name.
She sipped something from an elegant flute. It was clearly crystal and sparkled in the sun. No plastic stemware for the Bouviers, I see.
“Stacia Vanderbelt and her family are old friends of my parents,” Cody said, staying close to my side. He gave me a friendly smile, but I could see the caution there.
“Cody, you make me sound ancient.” Stacia laughed, the sound bright, like water dancing over bells. She sipped from her glass again, still smiling at me over the edge. “Edward and I went to school together.”
Ding, ding, ding…
That smile on her face suddenly made sense. It was a catty and sly smile.
“Did you?” I feigned interest. “How nice.”
“Well, we weren't in the same class. He is a few years older than me.”
Of course she had to make sure I knew she wasn't thirty and not married. Among people like this, she'd almost be an old maid.
As though he’d been summoned, Edward emerged from the crowd and his eyes warmed as they met mine. My heart thumped hard and fast against my ribs at the sight of him. He looked incredibly handsome, the slim fitting suit highlighting the breadth of his shoulders, his narrow hips. His hair was lighter now, the sun picking out the blond highlights among the brown and my fingers itched to comb through it.
He was watching me with a new intensity and my skin heated under the slow appraisal as he walked towards me. The green sheath Cody’s flighty friend Dawn had helped me select seemed to meet with approval all the way around, but the only approval I'd needed had been the heat in Edward’s eyes when he’d arrived with Paul earlier to pick me up.
Now, as he smiled at me, my heart set to racing all over again.
When he reached me, he bent down and pressed his lips to mine, the kiss chaste, but still managing to heat me straight down to my toes. His hand stroked down my arm to my hand, clasping my fingers. “I see Cody is showing you around.”
“Yes.” I shot his brother a grin, but then looked back into Edward's eyes. “Cody is fabulous, but you know he isn't you.”
“Ouch.” Cody clapped a playful hand over his heart.
Edward gave us an amused look before shifting his attention to Stacia. “You're looking well, Stacia. How have you been?”
I got the impression that he'd purposefully put off talking to her until after he'd made it clear that I belonged to him. The thought made my stomach twist. He might've left me in Cody's care for a while, but he was going to make sure everyone knew who I was.
She was a quick change artist, I had to give her that. In the blink of an eye, the sly smile was replaced by a dewy, sweet one and she moved to lay a hand on Edward's arm. She managed to sway closer without moving her feet at all. “Well enough, although I've missed seeing you.”
My eyes widened and I shot him a look. Edward was oblivious to the come on in her voice and stamped all over her features. From the corner of my eye, I saw Cody smirking. Anger burned within and I eased closer, curling my hand through Edward's arm.
“We'll have to get together. You, Gabriella and I could have lunch.” He nodded at her, all courtesy.
Like hell we will
.
Stacia beamed.
Edward kissed the top of my head and murmured, “I'll catch up with you soon.”
“But...” When his eyes came back to mine, concern and a question there, I swallowed my protest. I wasn't going to be one of those women. “Never mind. Go do what you need to do.”
He kissed my hand, sweeping his thumb over the inside of my wrist. Then he was gone.
“Clingy, aren't we?” Stacia’s sweet smile was gone, replaced by that snide one.
I whipped my head around, something ugly bubbling on my lips. I needed somewhere to direct the negative feelings Edward's departure had stirred up.
Cody laughed, a surprisingly nasty edge to it. “She wasn't the one making a play at an engaged man, was she, Stacia?”
Fine lines of strain fanned out from her dark eyes but in the span of heartbeats, her expression cleared and once more, that bright, airy laugh echoed around us.
“Flirting?” The dig in her voice was unmistakable. “I doubt you'd recognize it if a woman was flirting with you.”
“He would.” I angled my head up to see my future brother-in-law's face. It was stony, completely devoid of any emotion. “He just prefers the other gender.”
“Be more discreet,” Stacia hissed. She shot a look around the pavilion and the expression on her face couldn’t have been more plain.
Don’t say the
G
word
!
I was suddenly so pissed off. Next to me, Cody stood silent and unmoving. Suddenly, he wasn't just future family. He was my friend and I wasn't going to let anyone talk to him or about him that way.
“Why?” I demanded, the twang in my voice coming out loud and clear. “Oh, wait. I forgot the law of the land. Hypocrisy and bigotry are all well and good. But a man can't be gay. That's just unacceptable, am I right? And I thought ya'll up here were supposed to be more tolerant.”
Stacia sucked in a breath, flags of color riding high on her cheeks. She suddenly looked older than Edward.
“I thought I heard those dulcet tones, Tennessee.”
My heart made a mad attempt to jump right out of my chest as Flynn came up at that very moment. He wasn't looking at me though. He had his eyes locked on Stacia and she was watching him the way a rabbit might watch a hawk, with fear and fascination. I completely understood the feeling.
“Hello, Stacy.”
“Stacia,” she corrected. She swallowed and lifted a hand to toy with the pearl necklace she wore. The necklace, along with her soft ecru dress spoke of an old world elegance, the kind that made me think of Hollywood glam from back in the forties and fifties. Which, I supposed, was exactly what it was supposed to do.
Flynn lifted a tumbler of whiskey to his lips and sipped it, studying her from over the rim for a long moment before glancing over at us. “Cody. Gabriella.”
Cody shot his brother a wide, easy smile as he caught my hand and guided it to his elbow. “I’ve been tasked with introducing our soon-to-be-sister-in-law around, Flynn.”
“Then why don’t you do that?” Flynn said. His blue eyes met mine briefly before he looked back at Stacia. “Stacy and I will get caught up.”
A moment later, the crowd separated us and I looked up at Cody. “Is there something weird going on there that I need to know about?”
Cody grimaced. “I don’t know if I want to get into that conversation or not.”
I had to ask. “Is she…
was
she involved with Edward?”
“She wishes.” He snorted and shook his head. Then he shrugged. “Of course, she’d marry any one of us. She even tried to make a play at me, despite knowing that I was gay. She made it clear that didn’t matter to her, once I told her that it wasn't possible for her to turn me.” He tugged me over to the side and dipped his head to murmur in my ear. “You’re a sweetheart, but you don’t need to do that.”
“Do what?” I frowned up at him.
“Get pissed off at people for being people.” He straightened and looked around the crowd, his face resigned. “This world is what it is. Some of them know and don’t care. Others know and pretend I’m not here. Others…they know and pretend not to. And some really are just in the dark. I’m not going to change any of them and none of
them
are going to change me.”
“You don’t need to change!” I gripped his hand and squeezed.
“No.” He pinched my chin and then led me back out to the pavilion. “But I’m not going to worry about changing them either. The world is full of assholes and bigots, Gabs. Not my job, or yours, to change them. People will change when they want to, not a moment before.”
***
If Cody had stayed with me, I might have made it through that party relatively unscathed. But Cody wasn’t there just to babysit me and two hours into the ordeal, he met up with some friends and I silently slipped away, feeling like a fifth, sixth, and seventh wheel, all rolled into one. I knew he wouldn't mind if I hung out with them, but I did.
Feeling lost, I started searching for Edward and finally found him standing in a knot of couples probably ten years older than we were, but I was determined not to let that get to me. I’d have to feel comfortable here sooner or later, right?
Why not now
?
With that thought in mind, I strode toward him and settled at his side, smiling up at him when he glanced down at me, an odd, almost startled look on his face like he hadn’t expected to see me there.